This invention relates to a method and apparatus for coating meat, such as with a glazing of melted sugar and spices, and is particularly useful for glazing hams.
Currently hams may be purchased with a spice coating or glazing. The coating is applied by sprinkling a mixture of spices and sugar onto the ham, and using a hand-held blowtorch to melt the sugar which adheres the spice to the ham. Repeated applications of coating material and heating are required to provide a sufficiently thick layer. If the manual heating is too cool in spots the sugar will not melt and stick to the ham. If the heating is too hot, the sugar either bums and becomes very bitter, or it becomes too fluid and runs off the ham. Further, if too hot, the outer layer of the meat can burn.
Manual heating and spice application is thus very uneven, and the resulting coated hams are unevenly coated with glazing and may have a burnt coating or burnt meat. Manual coating is also time consuming and expensive, and results in an inconsistent product.
There is thus a need for a faster way to coat meat such as hams, and to produce meat with a consistent coating.
This invention provides a method and apparatus for coating hams. The hams are moved along a conveyor path by placing hams on brackets mounted to a conveyor. Sanding sugar is dispensed from a hopper onto a top surface of an inclined plate to distribute the sugar uniformly over the plate. The crystalline sugar is melted by heating the plate with electric or infrared heaters so the top surface of the plate melts the sugar without burning the sugar. A sensor monitors the melting sugar to control the temperature and regulate the melting by controlling at least one of the temperature of the plate and the amount of sugar dispensed onto the plate. Preferably the sensor senses the temperature of the sugar or a property of the sugar on upper surface of the plate to generate a control signal dependent on whether crystalline sugar on the upper surface is melted. The control signal can be used to vary the temperature or the amount of sugar on the plate to prevent burning.
The melted sugar is collected in a reservoir placed below the inclined plate to receive the melted sugar as it runs off the plate. The melted sugar from the reservoir is placed onto the ham as the ham moves along the conveyor. Advantageously, the reservoir rotates to pour the melted sugar onto the ham, and rotates back for filling.
A spice mixture is dispensed onto the melted sugar on the ham while the melted sugar is still hot enough to at least partially melt some of the spice mixture in order to form a glaze. The spice mixture is preferably placed onto the melted sugar, but could be placed on the meat before the melted sugar. Advantageously the glaze is cooled by directing a cooling fluid into contact with at least one of the melted sugar and the glaze. The cooling fluid is preferably a liquid, such as water, but could be other liquids or even a gas. Further, the ham can be coated by changing the direction of the conveyor and dispensing a spice mixture onto the glaze and placing melted sugar from the reservoir onto the ham as the ham moves along the conveyor to form a second layer of glaze. A controller can coordinate the various operations, or switches or sensors cooperating with the conveyor can be used to control the various operations.
The melted sugar partially melts crystalline sugar in the spice mixture to provide a glaze with a non-uniform structure that allows the glaze to break off into small pieces so the glaze can stick to smaller pieces of meat. It also provides a glaze that looks like it is custom applied by hand, and not applied by a machine. The glaze sticks to the upper surfaces of the meat because it is applied by gravity processes, although depending on the viscosity of the melted sugar and spice, some glaze will adhere onto sides of the meat. The method and apparatus produce a glazed ham that looks hand coated, but of more consistent quality, and better quality, than previously available. It does so faster, and with less waste, than hand-coated hams.
According to one aspect of this invention, there is thus advantageously provided a source of unburned but melted, crystalline sugar in sufficient amount to coat at least one piece of meat, and a reservoir in fluid communication with the source of melted sugar and sized to contain a sufficient volume of melted sugar to coat a surface of the at least one piece of meat with the melted sugar. The reservoir preferably has at least one hole located to dispense the melted sugar by gravity onto the meat. A spice dispenser containing spices is located so as to dispense the spices over the meat after the meat has been coated with melted sugar. A jet of water is directed to cool the melted sugar after it has been placed on the at least one piece of meat. Also provided is a conveyor having brackets configured to hold the meat, the conveyor being configured to move the meat along a path below the reservoir opening and spice dispenser at least once.
In a more detailed embodiment of this invention, there is provided an apparatus for coating meat that includes a conveyor traveling a path in a first direction and having at least one bracket configured to hold a piece of meat to be coated. A reservoir configured to hold melted crystalline sugar has at least one opening through which melted sugar can flow to leave the reservoir, with the at least one opening being located above and over a portion of the conveyor path an amount sufficient to dispense melted sugar from the first reservoir onto any meat placed on the brackets as the brackets move along the path below the at least one opening. There is preferably also at least one nozzle in fluid communication with a cooling liquid, with the nozzle being located and oriented to dispense the cooling liquid onto any meat held by the brackets to cool the melted sugar from the reservoir that hits any meat held by the brackets. Additionally, there is a hopper located above and over the conveyor path in an amount sufficient to dispense contents from the second hopper onto any meat held by the brackets, the second hopper being located further along the first direction than the second openings.
Preferably there is also a plate having a heater sufficient to heat the plate to a temperature sufficient to melt sugar, the plate having an upper surface onto which crystalline sugar can be dispensed for melting, the upper surface being located and inclined to direct sugar melted by the plate to the reservoir. It is also desirable to have another hopper located above the plate and having a first opening to receive sugar and a second opening to dispense sugar, the second opening being located above and over the plate to dispense sugar onto the plate during use of the apparatus.
Advantageously, the reservoir is positionable between a first receiving orientation to receive melted sugar from the plate and a second position to dispense sugar through the at least one opening. Advantageously, there are switches or sensors cooperating with the conveyor to change the positioning of the reservoir between the first and second positions.
Further, it is also preferable to have a sensor sensing sugar on the upper surface of the plate to generate a control signal dependent on whether crystalline sugar on the upper surface is melted. The signal can be used to vary the amount of sugar dispensed from the hopper over the plate. Preferably the sensors in communication with the melting sugar on the plate provide a signal used to control at least one of the temperature of the plate and the amount of sugar placed on the plate for melting.
The plate is preferably inclined to the horizontal and has an upper surface facing away from the conveyor and a lower surface facing toward the conveyor. The plate is preferably inclined to the horizontal at an angle in the range of about 20 to 40 degrees, with the plate having an upper surface facing away from the conveyor and a lower surface facing toward the conveyor.
The heater is preferably located so as to heat the plate, the location of the heater and a thickness of the plate being cooperatively selected to heat the plate to a sufficiently uniform temperature to melt sugar placed on the upper surface of the plate so sugar placed on the heated plate reaches a flowable state.
There is also provided a method for coating a piece of meat. The method includes the steps of continuously melting sugar without burning it by applying heat to an inclined surface on which the sugar is melted so the sugar runs off the inclined surface. Preferably, the sugar is sanding sugar. The melted sugar is collected in a reservoir as the melted sugar runs off the inclined surface. The meat is coated as it moves along the path by pouring the melted sugar from the reservoir onto a top side of the piece of meat. Preferably, the meat is moved along a conveyor path during the coating step.
Further, the meat is advantageously coated with a spice mixture containing granular sugar, either before or after the sugar coating step by dispensing the spices onto the meat at a location which contacts the melted sugar, the melted sugar being hot enough to melt some of the granular sugar on the meat. Preferably, the spice mixture contains granular sugar. The method includes the further step of cooling the melted sugar by placing a cooling liquid into contact with the melted sugar.
Advantageously, the step of melting sugar includes the further step of regulating the melting of the sugar by sensing a property of the sugar on the inclined surface and varying at least one of the temperature or the amount of sugar placed on the surface. Further embodiments include the step of heating the reservoir to maintain the melted sugar in a desired melted condition and may include the further step of moving the conveyor to pass the piece of meat at least twice through the melted sugar and spice coating steps.